A Glasgow-born former jockey, Vic Armstrong, left, made his debut as a stuntman doubling for Gregory Peck in Arabesque in 1966. But he really knew he'd hit the big time when he was cast as First Ninja in You Only Live Twice. Since then, he has performed and coordinated thousands of stunts in numerous movies, including the new Bond film Die Another Day, and found time to raise a daughter, who recently completed stunt work on Gangs of New York. Asked to name his trickiest stunt, Armstrong once replied: "Keeping the hat on in Raiders of the Lost Ark." Ryan Gilbey

Steamboat Bill, Jr (1928)

I think of this as the birth of stunts: the house falling down around Buster Keaton's ears while he just stands there, blankly, with his sad, stony face. He doesn't betray a hint of nervousness, and that's probably the most amazing thing about the stunt. If it was me, I'd have been looking behind me the entire time, getting ready to bolt. Or else it would have been: "Can we just get the tape measure out one more time?" Stunts hadn't really been invented. Remember, film acting itself had scarcely been invented. So to conceive of such a sophisticated combination of stunt work and acting is breath taking. I suppose the real trick is not punching the air in triumph and ruining the whole shot.

Stagecoach (1939)

You won't find a stuntperson anywhere in the business who doesn't acknowledge Yakima Canutt as the daddy of all stuntmen. His work in Stagecoach is phenomenal, and to my knowledge has never been repeated, though some have tried - Terry Leonard had a stab on The Legend of the Lone Ranger and nearly got his legs ripped off. What Canutt does in Stagecoach is a huge flamboyant leap from the horses to the stagecoach, then on to the yoke, down under the stagecoach and back up the other side. He designed the stunt and executed it himself, which is really putting your money where your mouth is.

Ben Hur (1959)

Canutt was coordinator of the chariot race, too, but in the stunt I've chosen, it was his son, Joe, who was performing. It's a prime example of how spontaneous stunts can be. It was never planned for Joe to go over the top of the chariot. The jump was rehearsed, but the adrenalin was up, the horses were running a bit hard, they hit the ramp and Joe was literally fired over the front. Poor old Yak must have been distraught: he was photographing this stunt in which it appears that his son has been killed. And then, lo and behold, Joe climbs back in. That's courage: to maintain that level of composure and to carry on acting even though your face has just been ripped open.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The jump from the rock in this picture is a fine example of a stunt being perfectly integrated into the story. I hate it when stunts are incongruous. Fireballs seemed to turn up for no discernible reason in every movie of the 1980s and early 1990s. You could send yourself to sleep watching those films by counting fireballs instead of sheep. But the jump in Butch Cassidy is lovely. It's nicely primed, with the dialogue and humour that leads into the stunt - that line, "Don't worry 'bout drowning, the fall will probably kill you first" - it contributes something to our understanding of the characters and what they're willing to go through. It's a really human stunt, just two guys with big hearts.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

I know about rope-bridge stunts from making Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Those things take off - once they're cut, you're on your own, and there's no way of controlling or manipulating the bridge's trajectory as it falls. You just have to know when to let go, and time your landing correctly. If Canutt is the daddy of all stuntmen, then Joe Powell is the daddy of British stuntmen. The story goes that before the rope bridge fall in The Man Who Would Be King, every other stuntman developed some mysterious ailment. But Powell stepped up and calmly agreed to do it. He had to fall 80ft on to a ledge with boxes on it. If he had missed, he would have ended up in the ravine. It's not something you plan; you just need big balls.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

This is one of three James Bond films on the list. It's Rick Sylvester executing a base-jump: skiing off a ledge, then sky-diving, and then at the final moment opening his parachute. He holds the fall as long as possible, teasing the audience, but also waiting for the skis, which he has removed from his feet during the fall, to get clear so that he can open the 'chute. And then the punchline - the union flag on the parachute. I know that Rick had to wait up the mountain for two weeks to perform that. They couldn't get good weather conditions, and then, after a fortnight, there was a 15-minute window. There simply wasn't the opportunity for rehearsal. If they'd been able to rehearse it, they could have shot it. What an original. And watch the way he falls - it looks so lazy!

Hooper (1978)

This is on the list purely out of my own naked, professional admiration and awe. It's a 300ft fall from a helicopter. Having done falls of about a third of that distance, I simply can't imagine the bravery it took to do it. Fear of heights is the most common phobia that you find, which I think is why this stunt engenders so much respect in stuntmen and audiences alike. You can have nets and rehearsals, but at the end of the day it's one person plummeting through the void.

Romancing the Stone (1984)

Another stunt performed by my good friend Terry Leonard. He's in the car going over the waterfall. It's a killer of a stunt. Literally so. You have safety guys at the bottom waiting to fish you out, but if it comes to that, all they're going to be fishing out is little pieces. You just have to make sure you get out, and stay out of the way of the car. It's an 80ft drop into foaming water, and you get an enema if you don't keep your feet together.

GoldenEye (1995)

The bungee jump off the dam at the beginning of the film is Wayne Michaels's crowning glory. Wayne's a sky-diver, but he still had to reach for the gun as he was going down, which can upset the trajectory. This stunt has really got everything - bravery, imagination, a strange kind of serenity. And Wayne never stops acting, which is, after all, essential for the film. Down the side of the dam there were steel rods, so if he'd fallen against it, the effect would have been something like a giant cheese-grater. There were obviously dummy drops, but no stunt is ever fail-safe. The most unnerving thing is when you're waiting at the top before a jump; you can see ambulances and hear the walkie-talkies: "OK, stretchers ready." Wayne said that before jumping off the dam, he caught sight of a crew member crossing himself.

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

The powerboat roll in the pre-credit sequence epitomises the risks on which so many stunts depend for their success. If the stuntman, Gary Powell, had been premature in activating the jets that flip the boat, even by a split second, then the boat would have gone on to its roof and he would have had his head ripped off. You can wear a helmet, but all that means is that they'll find your head with a helmet on it. It's a magnificent stunt. Pre-credit Bond sequences are always exciting to work on because you know you're being called upon to push this tradition further than ever before. On my website, I invited ideas for future pre-credit sequences, hoping it might spark something off in my head. One wag suggested a pre-credit sequence with no stunts, just acting. It would take a braver man than me to pull that off.

·Die Another Day is out now. Hooper is showing on Sky Movies on Sunday.